It’s time for some spring autumn cleaning in Battlefield 4, and there’s hefty long patch notes to go with it. Most notable is the further improvement to the infamous netcode, which is now set automatically to high as default to all users. A slew of game modes are also being added to Obliteration Competitive sub-game mode. Of course, it wouldn’t be a proper patch without weapon changes too.
Soldier movement is now almost parallel with that of Battlefield 3, but with Battlefield 4 animation sets. Revives are now a bit more fleshed out; the paddle will now make that signature sound when fully charged. In the weapon changes department, the biggest change is the reduction in grenade capacity. No more frag fests during close quarter combat (thank god).
We’ve got the full patch notes in all their glory on the next page.
Autumn Patch Highlights
So what are we improving? First of all: the final fix list for the Autumn Patch is fairly massive and will be released when the patch goes live. The full patch notes will contain all changes in more detail. In the meantime however, here are some of the Autumn Patch highlights that you can expect:
Game modes
- Rush (All base game maps except Dawnbreaker), Obliteration, Capture the Flag, and Carrier Assault. Added the Obliteration Competitive sub-game mode
Sight Improvements
- Close & Medium range sights reticles no longer affected by weapon firing animation, AKA “Visual Recoil”
- Improved visibility for red glowing reticule pieces against bright backgrounds
Soldier Movement
- Now almost identical to BF3 movement – with BF4 animation sets
- Dampened third person hit reactions for soldier head
HUD clarification pass
- De-cluttered and made customisable a plethora of HUD options to make BF4 look the way you want it to (within reason)
Revive mechanic
- Made revives much more robust, easier to understand with new UI art and included a new “fully charged” paddle sound.
Netcode
- Lowering the setting for how much time difference is allowed when damaging other players (addressing trade kills and behind cover kills where high pings are involved)
- An automatic High Frequency Update setting is now the default for all users
- Added High Frequency update support to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms
- Additional improvements to bullet damage delays between clients compared to Netcode Patch
Weapon attachment changes
- Muzzle Brake: Reduced the overall impact of this attachment. Both its positives and negatives have been reduced
- Heavy Barrel: Lowered the buff it gave to minimum moving spread and moved some of that bonus into reduced spread increase. Should be a good option for longer range tap firing
- Lasers: Small buff to standing hip-fire accuracy
Weapon changes
- Note that this list contains an excerpt – the upcoming patch notes will have a detailed list.
- Bullet velocity increases: Improved bullet velocity for Slugs and nearly all suppressed weapons. Selectively improved base velocity for weapons that were too slow for their intended range
- Damage Model: Many weapons have had their maximum and minimum damage adjusted slightly. It may take 1 extra bullet to kill at extremely close engagements and long range combat
- Trigger Delay: Removed from all revolvers
- Adjustments to slower rate of fire weapons to make them easier to use at longer ranges vs higher ROF weapons
- Carbines and PDWs now have unique bullpup modifiers that give improved bonuses over the rifle counterpart
- Ammo: Gave more ammo to the weapons that were short a mag compared to their counterparts
- DMRs: Audio when being shot at by a DMR has been improved
- SKS and M39EMR no longer allow you to hold breath
- Grenade capacity lowered and resupply times increased.